How has Jeremy Hunt survived long enough to become the longest-sitting health secretary?
![It seems unlikely these striking doctors are happy about Jeremy Hunt's record-breaking tenure [Image: Sean Hansford/MEN].](https://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/160508doctors-strike-manchester.jpg)
It seems unlikely these striking doctors are happy about Jeremy Hunt’s record-breaking tenure [Image: Sean Hansford/MEN].
Labour has accused Jeremy Hunt of having a “record of failure” as he becomes the longest-serving Health Secretary.After his 1,342 days in the role, he must also be the most reviled of the six Labour and six Tory ministers in the job since its creation in 1978, the Sunday People reports.
In the four years he has sat in the hot seat at Richmond House, it is claimed Hunt has managed to upset just about every section of the health profession as well as the public who use the service.
Currently in the midst of a brutal battle with junior doctors over working hours, Hunt is accused by Labour of having a record of failure.
They say he has presided over a real cut in NHS spending soaring waiting lists, a crisis in nursing numbers and failed to protect whistle- blowing staff.
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Words of ‘wisdom’ from the book that Hunt co-authored with Douglas Carswell outlining the privatisation of the NHS in 2005:
Doctors have been subjected to growing numbers of national standards frameworks that impinge on their clinical autonomy and deny them scope to respond to the particular needs of their patients.
Doctors have to chase meaningless targets set by the NHS quangoes that run the health service, whilst patients wait months for operations.
The centralisation of power in the hands of remote élites is denying
people the public services they have a right to expect.
Central control denies people a fair deal from public services in two main ways.
First, it holds back services from catering to local needs. Inner city populations have very different health care and educational needs from those in rural areas. Yet the hospitals and schools that serve them have to pursue exactly the same centrally imposed targets and are hemmed in by exactly the same rigid regulations.
Second, it constrains the innovation and excellence at the front line that drives improvements across the board.
Throughout, we are guided by three principles:
Decisions should be taken as closely as possible to the people they affect
Law-makers should be directly accountable
The citizen should enjoy maximum freedom from state control
The problem with the NHS is not one of resources.
Rather, it is that the system remains a centrally run, state monopoly,
designed over half a century ago
We should fund patients, either through the tax system or by way of universal insurance, to purchase health care from the provider of their choice. Those without means would have their contributions supplemented or paid for by the state.
A recent independent study of national health care systems placed the UK’s 18th out of 19 developed counties.
THE PROBLEM IS THE SYSTEM
Rather than a lack of resources, the reason for the NHS’s poor performance lies in its structure. The NHS was designed over half a century ago, at a time of rationing and deep poverty. It was, and remains, a child of its time, conceived on the principle that the beneficent state should be a monopoly provider
By taking on the multiple role of funder, producer and regulator of services, government is intervening in areas where its competence is limited
Our ambition should be to break down the barriers between private and public provision, in effect denationalising the provision of health care in Britain, so extending to all the choices currently available only to the minority who opt for private provision.
Many European countries, such as France, Germany and Switzerland, operate insurance-based systems which cover all members of society.
Under such systems, contributions towards health care are paid to third-party insurers who (unlike governments) are under an obligation to serve customers. All patients, including the most disadvantaged, enjoy immediate access to high quality care
In such countries there are also a diverse range of providers. In Germany, for example, half of all hospitals are run by the private and voluntary sector. This enables choice for patients and encourages innovation.
the man’s an idiot.
I’m afraid that in modern politics, especially right wing politics, nothing succeeds like failure.
As if Hunt cares a fig! He had an agenda to privatise the NHS and Cameron is happy enough to leave him there to do that. Problem we have is that Privatisation is not something that will arrive with a big BANG on, say, 1st January 2017.
It is happening NOW through the letting of massive contracts to private sector companies by the local commisioning groups across the UK. There will eventually become a tipping point where what we now regard as the NHS will be the service of last resort or the place where really tricky and expensive medical care is done because there is no profit to be made from it. Hunt will be handsomely rewarded for a “job well done” by being given a job with an obscene salary and numerous bonuses. By the time we have a Labour Govt, even if it is 2020, I fear that the thing will be irreversible a bit like the privatisation of the railways by that dimwit Major who did it out of spite because he knew that the Tories would lose in 97. Sorry to be so negative. I was brought up with NHS always being there and I sadly lament its demise. But sadly this Govt is oblivious to the VALUE of anything which is regarded as part of our social fabric if it suitsxtheir masters that it can be turned into a milch cow. Apology for long post but need to express mt anger and here seems a good place to do it. Phew!
Because Camoron hasn’t got the gumption to get rid of him, he’s one of his mates, his pal, one of his treasured chums, he’s going nowhere!